diddle
verb /ˈdɪdl/
/ˈdɪdl/
(informal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they diddle | /ˈdɪdl/ /ˈdɪdl/ |
| he / she / it diddles | /ˈdɪdlz/ /ˈdɪdlz/ |
| past simple diddled | /ˈdɪdld/ /ˈdɪdld/ |
| past participle diddled | /ˈdɪdld/ /ˈdɪdld/ |
| -ing form diddling | /ˈdɪdlɪŋ/ /ˈdɪdlɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] diddle somebody (out of something) (British English) to get money or some advantage from somebody by cheating them synonym cheat
- He’s been diddling the taxman for years.
- My old boss diddled me out of over £5 000.
- [intransitive] diddle (around) (North American English) to waste time without having a purpose
- Sometimes I just diddle around all day.
- [intransitive] diddle (with something) (North American English) to play with something carelessly or without thinking
- He diddled with the graphics on his computer.
Word Originearly 19th cent.: probably from the name of Jeremy Diddler, a character in the farce Raising the Wind (1803) by the Irish dramatist James Kenney (1780–1849). Diddler constantly borrowed and failed to repay small sums of money: the name may be based on an earlier verb diddle ‘walk unsteadily’.